BIRD NOTES AND NEWS. 



93 



fairly numerous. Among the Trees, too, the 

 Willow, Hawthorn, Maple, and Elder have few 

 students, and the Hornbeam but one, though the 

 Holly, Sycamore, and Mountain Ash are popular 

 subjects. 



The Birds' Berries. 



A protest has been raised in the Times against 

 the ruthless lopping and chopping of hedges in 

 country roads that is taking place for the purpose 

 of making the roads safer for fast motor driving ; 

 this action arising mainly out of a recent lament- 

 able fatality, when it was stated that a high hedge 

 at the curve of a road prevented two motors, both 

 going at high speed, from seeing one another. A 

 simpler recommendation, one would suppose, 

 would be that drivers should slow down when 

 approaching curves round which they cannot see. 

 One point, which Bird Protectors may well take up 

 in this matter, is the wholesale destruction thus 

 brought about of the natural food of wild birds. 

 The hedges just now are laden with berries, upon 

 which many thousands of birds largely depend for 

 their existence through the hard winter months. 

 Is it not enough that pedestrians and cyclists 

 should be smothered in dust, the country air 

 poisoned with petrol fumes, and life endangered 

 by the furious pace at which some motors are 

 driven, that, in order to enable a few persons to 

 take their pleasure at the rate of 20 or 30 miles an 

 hour, we are also to have the beauty of roadside 

 and hedgerow chopped away, and our wild birds 

 starved to death, a contingency which the reason- 

 able majority of motorists would certainly not 

 desire ? 



THE PLUME TRADE. 



Birds-OF-Paradise continue to be a leading 

 feature of the Plume Sales in London, and will 

 apparently continue to be so until the last of these 

 exquisite birds has found its sepulchre in a 

 Houndsditch warehouse ; unless measures are 

 taken for its absolute protection throughout New 

 Guinea. At the sale on October 15th, over 7000 

 were offered, and nearly all " sold with good 

 competition"; for that of December 17111,4667 were 

 catalogued. The packages of "osprey" feathers 

 numbered 548 and 200 respectively, a large 

 proportion being advertised as " East Indian." 

 Other features of the two sales were 100 Lyre-bird 

 tails from Austra'ia, 96 Impeyan Pheasants 

 (presumably from India, whence their exportation 

 is illegal), and a large number of Coronata Pigeons 

 and of Albatross quill feathers. 



BIRD SANCTUARIES IN NEW 

 ZEALAND. 



'' FOR more than half a century the birds of New 

 Zealand were bullied, harried and driven from the 

 land in which their kind had dwelt for many ages. 

 The colonists, who robbed them of their heritage, 

 are now struck with remorse at the wickedness 

 that has been wrought, and are trying to save from 

 destruction the remnant of this unique and aristo- 

 cratic avifauna, which stands aloof from bird life 

 in all other parts of the world. Two sanctuaries 

 have been established in the colony : one is 

 Resolution Island, in the Southern Sounds, and 

 the other is the Little Barrier Island, which lies 

 43 miles from the City of Auckland." 



So writes Mr. James Drummond, F.L.S , in the 

 Sydney Morning Herald, June 1st, 1907, and the 

 story he tells of the persecution of some of these 

 birds, together with his charming account of them, 

 show that this protection did not come a day too soon 

 if some most beautiful and interesting species were 

 to be rescued from extermination. Among them 

 are the New Zealand Robins, the Bell-bird, the 

 New Zealand Canary, the Stitch-bird, the Shining 

 Cuckoo, the Tui or Parson-Bird, and the Kakapo 

 Parrot. It appears to have been the Bell-birds in 

 particular which delighted Captain Cook, when 

 his vessel approached South Island more than a 

 hundred years ago. "Their wild melody,'' he 

 wrote, " was infinitely superior to anything that we 

 have heard of the same kind. It seemed to be 

 like small bells most exquisitely tuned " And 

 Mr. Drummond narrates that this loud and clear 

 "clink, clink, clonk, clink," (D, F sharp, C, G) 

 appeals to a New Zealander as the Lark's song 

 appeals to an Englishman. In appearance it is 

 a dull-coloured little bird, like most typical New 

 Zealand species, with inconspicuous olive-tinted 

 plumage. The New Zealand " Robins " have not 

 the red breast of their English namesake, but they 

 are twice his size and are as merry, tame, and pert. 

 They are slaty- grey in colour, with bright jet-black 

 eyes. There are two species ; one never leaves the 

 South Island, and the other never leaves the North 

 Island. The latter is, unhappily, becoming rarer. 

 "The Little Barrier Island is one of the few places 

 where it is still found, and the rapidity with which 

 this, the gentlest of birds and the kindest and 

 brightest of companions, has been driven from the 

 mainland shows that none need sanctuary more." 

 In 18S7 Sir Walter Buller predicted its early 

 extinction ; Barrier Island has saved it. 



